Bachelor Home Office

My task at hand was to take the empty room that was a catch all an make it into a functional work space. Armed with a modest budget and creativity here are the results from this bachelor home office design.

The color palette is simple but very

intentional. Beige with gray tones give a neutral backdrop with a masculine, contemporary feeling. The muted red provides energy and life. The deep dark brown wall texture anchors the room and adds elegance. The colors work together to achieve a goal. contemporary, cozy, elegant and interesting.

The wall texture is subtle but sick (that means really cool for the slang illiterates)! It's a dark brown natural reed wallpaper that adds texture to the space without becoming fussy. It's illuminated by very contemorary wall scones (of course it is set on dimmers) on either side of the desk area. The only thing left is to bring in a huge oil rendering of my client between the lights, a lit cigar and you will have a space fit for a BOSS (Said in my best Rick Ross voice [the rapper not the mobster {btw- I don't condone smoking ]}). I got side tracked, where was I? oh yeah, the design...

I brought in different but complimentary pottery as a collection. I wanted to have something to contract all of the straight lines and had a bit more of an organic feel. I also framed pitures I took, the metro collection to add an urban feel to the space. In retrospect, a plant will go well in this room even tho it as not part of the finished design.

The metro collection by Renaissance Photography

In any room the lighting is key! instead of springing the bucks for strategically placed recessed lighting, I decided for an inexpensive adjustable track light on a dimmer). This enables us to create a mood in the space. The lighting draws your attention to key elements and gives the room it's drama.

Offices have a way of collecting stuff. With that in mind, I kept the accessories to a minimum and storage to a maximum. I used the entire back wall to assemble a modular storage unit that takes advantage of the vertical space in the room without eating up valuable floor space.

FENG SHUI

Let's talk Feng Shui! I am far from being an expert but I do utilize some of it's practices in my designs, because a room is just as much about how it feels as it is about how it looks! here are some of the principles that I implemented on this design.

1. Having a clearly separated space between your work and living area is important. it's even suggested that you take a short walk before and after spending time in your home office to keep your personal and business lives separate. If you don't have a separate room. use a room divider to block off your work area.

2. Do not have you back to the door

3. it's best to have your office facing east (that just happened to work out well for this project)

4. Red is a color that promotes energy in all your career efforts

5. Dont not place you desk under a window, it's best to have the light wash over it from the side.

6. Have ample storage because clutter prevents the free flow of energy throughout the room.

Check out my mini-vid as I walk thru the space and give more insight on the design.

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Work-a-holic Rehab

After a few weeks of working 7 days a week, I did the unspeakable...

I took a day off!Iactually didn’t necessarily NEED a day off but I have been told that it’s healthy to do every once in a while

.

So I forced myself to do no work for one day. The original plan was a beach day in Delaware but mother nature nixed that plan with thunderstorms. So instead I decided to enjoy one of my favorite past times.. hiking!

Note to self: Staying up til 5 am playing spades with the boys is probably a bad idea before waking up to go hiking.

(Even more important) note to self: trying

to wake up a friend who was hanging out

the night before and convincing them that going on a vigorous hike early in the morning will be met with extreme resistance

None-the-less... I made it happen. We got a late start to the day, but I decided to stop and pick up a wide angle lens to capture this mini-adventure. And now I get to share it with you.

We went to Great Falls, VA and walked into the visitor’s center. We were greeted by a nice lady who we affectionately called Betty (on the premise that she looked like Betty White). Everyone knows I like a challenge, and clearly so did Betty. As we walked in she said “You two look like strong, strapping, athletic, manly Mandingo men that can handle the toughest of all trails easily” (slightly exaggerated, but I’m sure she thought it). Then pointed us to the toughest trail they had... Hell yeah! I‘m excited.

She however forgot to mention that they just changed the trail so a lot of the markers led to barricaded paths. Forget being Mandingo men, we were guinea pigs.. I’m sure she was thinking “if they survive, then we will re-mark the trail”. It started off with some rough terrain, nicely wooded areas, expected bugs and wildlife, and great views (from points off the path that we were not suppose to go).

We were suppose to follow the blue markers... that was a joke.. Most of them led to barracaded paths and rocks that the average person should not have been expected to climb.

The views were worth the potential absolute death falls

But then... as we had to start scaling cliffs, jumping rock piles, shimmying down narrow ravines, and trying to keep our ankles from breaking we just kept saying “We gonna have to have some words with Betty when/if we get back!”.

Before we left, she did ask “Do you beautifully built, striking black men (still exaggerating) have water?”.

But what the treacherous granny meant to ask was “Do you all have a overnight gear, first aid kit, wildlife survival handbook and last will and testament prepared!?”

I chased this lil frog (about the size of my thumb nail) all over the damn woods trying to get a picture of him... finally got it! This butterfly on the otherhand, not only showed off in couture poses but stalked me for the rest of the hike #vaincreatures

Come'on.. I been running 3-5 miles every day for the past two weeks,

did you really think I wouldn't throw in a picture of me with my shirt off and "sweat dripping aaaall over my boooody"!?

So 3 hours later! we finally get back to the main path that leads us out of the park.

We are alive, all limbs still in place and one more trail conquered. It was fun, relaxing and well worth it.

Luckily my phone wasn’t working in that area so it was a true day off and great exercise. Now... Back to work!

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